Charles Bowden and Molly Molloy talked about the violence in Ciudad Juárez. Almost 10,000 people have been killed since 2008.

Charles Bowden. El Nuevo Sol.

By JORGE NERIEL NUEVO SOL

The award-winning author of “Murder City,” Charles Bowden, and the creator of the Frontera List and librarian, Molly Molloy, discussed the situation of Ciudad Juárez and talk about their book “Murder City” in the Jack and Florence Ferman Presentation Room in the Oviatt Library Wednesday morning.

The room needed more seats to accommodate the students and professors that attended to the presentation of “Murder City,” which is the common book for the fall semester chosen by the journalism department at California State University, Northridge.

Bowden shared his investigations of Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city that has become known worldwide for its drug cartels and high mortality rate. Juarez shares a border with El Paso, Texas. He conducted his investigations to find the reason of why more than 10 percent of Mexico’s population has moved to the United States.

“The U.S. government and the Mexican government say that the this is a battle between the Mexican military and the drug organization,” Bowden said. “Could be, except we have tens of thousands of Mexicans that have been slaughtered.”

According to data collected by New Mexico State University librarian Molly Molloy, since 2008, Juarez has become the most dangerous city in the world.

“The Mexican government admits that they have never looked into more than five percent of murders,” said Bowden. According to the Mexican Executive Secretary of the National Public Safety System, extortion in Mexico has increased 57 percent from 2007 to 2010.

Many of the known deaths in Ciudad Juarez have been of the women that have been killed, but in reality, according to the data collected by Molloy, only nine percent of the deaths in Juarez is composed by women.

“La matazón de cada día” is a Juarez website was titled according to Molloy, because they are referring to the traditional prayer our daily bread.

“Most of these stories disappear,” Molloy said.

Bowden said that the United States have found a way to keep undocumented people from crossing the border, which is killing the economy but another reason why people is fleeing from Mexico is because they want to stay alive.

“Juarez has over one-hundred to two-hundred-thousand working in factories, which are all owned by American corporations. Every single one of them pay a wage that no Mexican can live on … they are slaves,” Bowden said. “We build factories that kill people… we have created a world where the products in this room can come north, but the people who makes them for us can’t.”

After the presentation, Charles Bowden and Molly Molloy answered questions from students, and even some professors. They also agreed to sign books and share some time with those that attended the presentation.

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